NYC NOW - March 20, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Police say they’re looking for a man who poses as an Amazon worker and has stolen more than $10,000 in jewelry and other valuables in a string of burglaries in Queens over the last year. Meanwhile, New York City officials are launching a safety campaign to warn e-bike riders of the dangers of flouting traffic laws. Also, thousands of patients insured by Aetna will keep their coverage for doctors in the New York-Presbyterian health system after striking a deal with the health insurance provider. Finally, the state of emergency in Haiti has been escalating, with gang violence wreaking havoc on Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. With over 150,000 Haitians in New York City, many residents are paying attention to the news. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with Jocelyn McCalla, a senior policy advisor for Haitian Americans for Democracy, to learn more about how the Haitian community in New York City is doing.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, March 20th. Here's the midday news for Michael Hill. We're looking for a man who's stolen more than $10,000 in jewelry and other valuables and a string of burglaries in Queens over the last year. Officials said the suspect poses as an Amazon worker by wearing the company's blue vest, and waits outside buildings until someone walks out. After getting inside, he knocks on doors to see if residents are home.

Then police say he slips into empty apartments through a window. Police have connected him to nine different crimes dating from January of 2020. The most recent break-in was reported to police on March 5th. Two weeks ago, no injuries have been reported, though, in any of the incidents. New York City officials are launching a safety campaign to warn E-bike riders. of the dangers of flouting traffic laws. City data showed last year 23 people died in e-bike crashes compared to 90 year before.

NYPD chief of transportation Philip Rivera said e-bikes can reach speeds up to 25 miles an hour. Do you know that that is equivalent to the average speed of a professional bike rider in the tour of the France? Professional riders train for years. They are accustomed to emergency maneuvers at high speeds and necessary distance to stop safely. are you a professional writer? You'll see the public safety ads in the media and in the subway system. Those ads will urge riders to follow traffic laws and moderate speeds to avoid crashes.

Licenses are not required to drive an e-bike, but helmets are. Mount Sinai Health System has reached a deal with United Healthcare, restoring insurance coverage for thousands of New Yorkers. United and Mount Sinai can discontinue their contract late last year over a disagreement on fees and prices. Thousands of United customers lost coverage for Mount Sinai hospitals. They were due to lose coverage from Mount Sinai affiliated doctors this week, but the deal will avoid that and restore all hospital coverage. Neither Mount Sinai nor United immediately offered details on the terms of their new four-year

contract. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. The state of emergency in Haiti has been escalating with gang violence wreaking havoc on Haiti's capital, Port of Prince. Jocelyn McAll is a senior policy advisor for Haitian Americans for Democracy. He's one of many Haitian New Yorkers who are tuned into the news. He resides in Brooklyn and joins us now to talk more about how the Haitian community in New York City is doing.

Jocelyn national media reports say that a number of Haitians have been brought to Miami on a chartered flight. Given the size of the Haitian diaspora in and around our area here in New York City, Have you heard of anything similar here? Is anyone trying to get out of harm's way by coming to our area? We haven't seen a huge influx yet of Haitians in the recent days in New York City, but obviously Haitians have been coming to New York City for quite a while now because the crisis in Haiti does not date from yesterday. I mean, it has been sort of simmering for the last of the three years,

and basically took a turn for the worst with the killing and assassination of then the fact of the president of Haiti, Javna Mouyez and 2021. Are organizations like yours or, say, church groups or community centers preparing for folks to come here, given the latest news out of Haiti? They are, and this is why most of them are busy looking for additional resources to make sure that they can provide shelter, they can provide legal assistance. They can help people navigate the bureaucracy if they are qualified for certain benefits. But obviously, it takes a significant amount of resources to deal with the influx of refugees and asylum seekers.

Now, it's been in the news over the past year or so, the number of migrants who have been coming to New York City. What is your advice to city and state officials on how to best settle? those refugees. My best advice to city and city officials, you know, in New York City is that don't lose side of the fact that these people are not coming here because, you know, they are looking to explore the resources of New York City. They're coming here because they're desperate. They're coming here to live with family, and the burden is primarily on relatives that can provide assistance to them, you know. So I think that there needs to be kindness and much more of a welcoming nature rather than say, hey, these people are problematic and we don't want them here.

So the current situation, Haiti is currently operating without a head estate and a transitional council to selected prime minister is in the process of being appointed. How does that instability make it harder to communicate with folks who are in Haiti or say send money and close back home? So it's very much problematic for Haitians to access remittances from abroad. And if they do go to or emittances offices that are open, they are subjecting themselves to being robbed and killed by gang members in waiting. We have a situation that is really challenging the humanitarian world because a lot of health care, clinics, hospitals, and otherwise have been closed.

The police is not capable of providing safety and security in every corner of pot-of-prints. So you have a situation that is really desperate at this stage. Four Haitian American City Council members wrote a statement last week saying that, yeah, they have limited influence on the matter, but are ready to assist in any meaningful way. Mayor Adams recently tweeted saying New Yorkers stand with Haitians during this difficult time. What else do you want New York City and state elected officials to do to help Haiti? Unfortunately, part of the problem with what's happening right now is that the U.S. policy has not been to come. kind to Haiti because it has really sort of misread the situation and stuck to a failed strategy. So I think that what they can do is make sure that at this point in time that the Biden administration

understands what the stakes are and how to go about it in such a way that Haitians, both in Haiti and abroad, can be active partners in making sure that Haiti becomes a safe and stable and democratic state. Now, you mentioned that it's hard getting money to folks there because the gangs control so much of what's going on. On a local level, it's kind of hard to do much outside of, say, influencing federal policy. But if New Yorkers wanted to help, what can they do? Well, they can provide support to the few community organizations that are providing assistance to the Haitian immigrants and refugees. So I would mention, for example, the Haitian Americans United for Progress that have offices in Brooklyn and Queens also would mention the diaspora community services in Brooklyn and in Life of Hope.

There are three organizations with good reputation and with a good record of services that should be able to get and manage the assistance necessary to provide the help that the Haitians are seeking. That was Jocelyn McAllen, a senior policy advisor for Haitian Americans for Democracy. Jocelyn, thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep vows. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.